An Ekka, by John Lockwood Kipling (1837-1911). The last of the three "roundels" in the book, this is one of the illustrations for Chapter VIII, "Of Horses and Mules," in Beast and Man in India (1891), p. 197. The "ekka" was, as Kipling explains, "a single-horse, springless gig," which "seems to be an indigenous carriage, and has the half-organic air that suggests antiquity." As usual, he writes with a journalistic flair and full understanding of the way of life, adding knowledgeably,

Unknown in the Deccan, Western India, and Sind as far north as Mooltan, it is the people's own "trap" from Peshawar through the Punjab, Hindustan, and parts of Bengal nearly to Calcutta. Nothing could be more characteristic than the primitive, useful, and cheaply-built machine here sketched. [211]

As in previous chapters, Kipling does not just focus on the picturesque. Here, he deplores the way in which horses were literally crippled and deformed by their elaborate training for ceremonial purposes. At first glance, the depiction on the right of A Raja's Charger (Marwar Breed) looks attractive, with the horse in its ceremonial trappings. Kipling explains, "Marwari horses are prized especially for native chiefs for their size and form" (201). But the horse's stance is unnatural, the neck strangely arched. He has already shown how this is achieved by keeping the horse tied in a certain way. He has also shown a page of cruelly-spiked "thorn bits" used in the training (p.192). He has tried to be fair and has discussed the need for such methods but it is clear that he takes the horse's part. As Elizabeth James points out, "Kipling's judgements and opinions convey a strong sense of his personality as well as of his Indian experience" (369).

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